


Don't Eat The Weeds

by Silverdrift



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Coma, Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Not Beta Read, Post-Canon, Post-War, crest research, dont eat the plants linhardt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 09:23:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21177113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverdrift/pseuds/Silverdrift
Summary: After eating a plant with unknown effects, Linhardt barely clings to life and ends up in a coma. Caspar is worried sick, but remains at his side until he wakes.





	Don't Eat The Weeds

**Author's Note:**

> A request filled on tumblr for my Bad Things Happen Bingo. I'm not too thrilled with the pacing or the ending. but here we go anyway! Enjoy!

It was not unusual for Caspar to find his boyfriend in the weirdest places, sound asleep. Once, he found the man asleep among the plants in the green house in the middle of the night while recording their magical properties. Another time Linhardt had been hiding from Edelgard, ended up on the roof somehow and dozed off there. So, to have found him in the library, out cold beside the shelves and books and papers scattered around him… it seemed mild. Caspar just picked him (and all his papers) up and carried him back to his bed like he usually did.

Except, when he came back to check on him several hours later… Linhardt hadn’t moved. 

Though, he had been recently obsessing over whatever his current topic of research was, napping far less than usual… so Caspar just assumed he was completely wiped and needed the sleep. The question of waking him up for dinner did cross his mind, as sometimes food was the farthest thing from Lin's mind when he got like this… but eventually he decided to just bring something back for when the man awoke and set off to get his own dinner before bed.

The worry didn’t set in until the next morning. Caspar had slept in, having gone to bed late because he lost track of time sparing with Raphael, but when he went to see Linhardt… he found the scholar still in bed, seemingly asleep still and in the exact same position that he was in when Caspar laid him down the day before. The food that had been left for him was completely untouched as well, so it wasn’t like he got up, ate and went back to sleep.

“Hey. You can’t sleep all day… there’s training to do!” Caspar called loudly. 

No response.

His face knitted together into a look of concern. Normally even in a dead sleep, the mere mention of training caused Linhardt to protest. Yet, not only did Caspar not receive so much as a single groan… there was no reaction to his naturally loud voice. Slowly he walked up to the bed and reached out to shake him. “H-hey, Lin you-“ He jerked his hand away almost the moment he touched him. Even though those clothes, the mage was burning up and still very unresponsive. Caspar bolted out the door in an instant, nearly tripping over himself in his rush to find Marianne or Mercedes.

Everything after that happened in such a blur, Caspar could barely keep up. He found Mercedes, but it took her AND Marianne to get the situation under any sort of control and even then, one of them almost constantly had to be casting some sort of faith magic while the other worked to find out what was wrong. They asked him so many questions he couldn’t answer… was he showing any signs of illness before? What caused him to fall unconscious? Was it sudden or gradual? Was he showing any odd symptoms before this? Each time he couldn’t answer, he felt worse and worse. 

“I-I don’t know… I got up yesterday morning and he already had his nose in a book… I don’t even think had gone to sleep… but he seemed fine! I gave him a kiss and asked if he wanted breakfast, he told me he would eat soon and then I left. I got busy and didn’t see him again until I found him and he was already out…” 

“Where did you find him?” Mercedes asked, just a gentle as ever, standing over Linhardt with a stead cast of magic. Marianne was just quietly testing different thing to see if she could pinpoint a cause.

“In the library. I-I didn’t know anything was wrong! He falls asleep everywhere, I-… I didn’t know…” His voice cracked at the end, tears prickling his eyes as they fell upon the unconscious form upon the bed. “I didn’t know…” 

“Don’t blame yourself, Caspar.” Marianne piped up, though still very soft spoken. “do you happen to know what he was studying?”

“One of those plants in the greenhouse… said he found one hidden in the back that hadn’t been studied a lot.” He wasn’t really sure why that mattered at all, but when he saw Marianne and Mercedes look at each other so quick, the confusion only got worse. “What? What’d I say?”

“I need to know which plant. It's possible it could be the cause.” Mercedes stepped away, letting Marianne take over the steady stream of faith magic.

“He had a stack of papers scattered around him, maybe its in there sonewhere… they’re on his desk if that helps.” He offered, watching her as she hurried over to the desk. “You don’t think he ate the plant or something do you? I mean I know Lin gets a little weird when he is doing research…” he watched Mercedes stare at one particular piece of paper for a longer than she had the rest of the stack.

“Yes, I believe he did. But I think he overestimated its effects.…” she started gather up some herbs that she brought with her. “Its treatable, I just hope we aren’t starting to late…”

It didn’t take long for them to send him away. Probably because he had started pacing, hovering and just in general being in the way. So, he made his way back to his room, flopping down on his bed with a thunk and vaguely hearing Ferdinand complain about the noise from Hubert's old room. Part of him felt bad, because he knew that Ferdinand had actually lost the man he loved to the war… but it was hard for him to think about that when his own boyfriend was fighting for his life. Or at least, it would have been… if the man didn’t suddenly appear at Caspar's open door. 

“Caspar,” the red head started, crossing his arms over his chest with a scowl, “Need you make such racket just lying down?”

“Sorry, Ferdinand…” 

Ferdinand's expression softened in to concerned confusion. The normally boisterous man would normally apologize, but then make some excuse for his volume, as if everyone didn’t already know he was just naturally loud… but now it seemed something had his personality quite muted. “Is something the matter? You look… stressed.”

The last thing Caspar wanted to do was talk about his boyfriend to a guy that literally just came out of his deceased lover’s room. His hesitance to answer apparently was all Ferdinand needed.

“Is it about Linhardt?”

Caspar sat up onto the edge of the bed, slouched over with his arms rest on his knees. He didn’t look at the man at his door, he couldn’t, his eyes remaining fixed on the floor. “Yeah. He…” The thought trailed off as he ran a hand through his hair, not even noticing that Ferdinand had come in and sat down in his desk chair. “Apparently he was researching some stupid plant and ate it and now… now he’s with Mercie and Mari and I dunno what’s… what’s gonna happen…”

“Oh…” Ferdinand was admittedly a bit ashamed. He had been expecting to hear of a fight between the two given their vastly different personalities… not to hear that Linhardt was in a fight for his life. “I am sorry, truly… I am sure the ladies are doing everything to save him. Let us hope for the best.”

“Yeah… I just… I feel like it’s my fault! When I found him I-I should have know something was up! Instead I just took him to his room and left and it got worse! What if I basically ki-… oh..” Guilt washed over him, and he looked up just in time to see Ferdinand look away. “S-sorry Ferdinand… I didn’t mean-“

“It is fine. I know it was not your intention.” He said, taking a moment before he was able to look back at Caspar. “Please, do not blame yourself. I am sure there if there was any real indication of his condition, you would have gotten him care immediately.”

“I guess…” The response didn’t quite fit with what had been said to him, but it was what came out regardless. “I just feel like I should have known something was wrong.”

Ferdinand got to his feet moved closer to Caspar's side, placing a hand upon his shoulder when he sat next to him. “I doubt there was any way for you to have known. I know you would not have been negligent of Linhardt's life and I am sure he knows that as well. We all know that.”

Caspar was quiet for the moment. That little voice in his head was still saying he should have known… but Ferdinand was right. He did get help at the first sign of a problem after all. “Yeah… you’re right.” He went quiet, staring at his feet for a while and Ferdinand just sat there with him. It was comforting actually, not sitting there stewing and wondering all alone. At least now, even as the red head got up to leave, he would know it wasn’t his fault. He lifted his head as the other man reached the door, realizing he had yet to say thank you. “Hey Ferdinand?”

The man stopped, looking back over his shoulder. “Yes Caspar?”

“Thanks.”

“Of course. I hope he recovers.” The smile on his face was a bit sad. “I would not wish this on anyone…” 

\---

Caspar didn’t know when he fell asleep, but a soft knock at the door startled him awake. At first, he felt confused and a little hopeful. Maybe it was all a dream. Maybe Linhardt was ok and that was him at the door. Hurriedly, he ran to the door, hoping, praying that he would find his sleepy boyfriend thanking him for leaving food for him… but that was not the case. Instead, standing outside his door was Mercedes, looking very, very tired. Caspar visibly drooped, disappointed… but the realization that none of that was a dream crept in and he quickly went in a panic. “Mercie… Linhardt is he…”

“He is stable, but not awake.” She gave him a sweet smile, despite how exhausted she was. “Marianne and I managed to stop the reaction and get his fever broken. I am hopeful he will wake soon and it just wouldn’t be the same without you there when he does!” 

Relief swept over him, almost overwhelmingly. He was so relieved in fact that he couldn’t stop himself from yanking Mercedes into a tight hug. “Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“Ah!” She was startled at first, but it soon faded off into a soft giggle. “Don’t thank me yet Caspar! It could still be some time before he wakes up… and even then, it might be a while before he can do things normally. It was quite the traumatic event.”

“Ok, but you said he is alive, right?”

“Well yes. I do expect he will recover quite well actually, it just may be a slow process.”

“You save his life, Mercedes! I… I can’t thank you and Mari enough for that.” He gave her another squeeze before it hit him that she came to get him so he could back to Linhardt's side. So he quickly let go and took off running. “THANKS MERCIE!”

\---

Four weeks went, but when Mercedes came in to do her normal check one day, she was surprised to find Linhardt awake. It had startled her, as she wasn’t expecting him to look at her when she came in, enough so that she nearly dropped the bowl of water she was carrying. “Oh! Linhardt!” She exclaimed, dropping her voice when she realized that Caspar was asleep, “I didn’t know you were awake!”

“I haven’t been long.” He slurred, not completely coherent.

“Yes… Caspar found you.” She looked at the sleeping man, exhausted from his own lack of rest and waiting. It upset her to have watched Caspar put on that enthusiastic and cheerful face, but his eyes being just so tired and lost… only for this man to be so casual about the situation. “Just what were you thinking Linhardt?? This could have killed you!”

“Calm down, Mercedes. I was never in that kind of-“

“No. You listen for a moment.” She interrupted, a mix of sadness and irritation. “You nearly died Linhardt. You underestimated the subject of your research and because of that, you’ve spent the last four weeks in a coma… You scared Caspar to death!”

Linhardt opened his mouth to speak… but closed it again. Four weeks? It was hard to believe. That plant did have some understudied effects on those with a crest, but that was certainly not what he was expecting. His eye moved to look at Caspar, who hadn’t budged once since Mercedes came in. “Has he been here the whole time?”

“Yes. He has hardly left your side in the past four weeks… it’s been a chore to get him to eat properly or sleep well because he absolutely would not leave unless he had to. Ferdinand took it upon himself to at least make sure he was brought food if he didn’t see him in the dinning hall at least once a day.”

“Ah. Do thank him for me, would you? I don’t imagine once Caspar wakes I’ll have much time to do so myself…” He sighed. To most it might have sounded like he was annoyed, and he was, but not at Caspar as it may have seemed. It was more directed at himself for having worried his boyfriend so badly over such a gross miscalculation. 

“Sure. Just as long as you promise not to do something so reckless again!”

“I cannot promise that. It’s bound to happen in this particular field of research. But I will at least try to make sure I have someone present to assist immediately should things go arwy.”

“Good enough.” She giggled, knowing that was the best she was going to get. She proceeded to check him over, check reflexes and such. After she was done, she started to go get him some water and a light meal… but when she saw Caspar start to stir, she smiled and motioned for Linhardt to keep quiet for a moment. “Caspar?”

“Huh?” He responded groggily, slowly pulling himself to a sitting position. “Mercie? Yeah… sorry I’m…” a yawn interrupted his train of thought, “I’m awake.”

“Oh good. Will you please get a glass of water?”

“Yeah sure. No problem.” He drug himself to his feet and absentmindedly trudged over to retrieve the requested item. “Is everything checking out ok?”

“Oh yes. I’d say there is significant improvement!” She said cheerfully, a slight giggle towards the end as she glanced at Linhardt. 

“That’s awesome! Hopefully he-“ That’s when he turned around. His whole body froze, refusing to do anything except stare at Linhardt with the most shocked expression up until the glass shattering on the floor snapped him out of it. “L-Lin…” His voice cracked. 

“You know, you really shouldn’t sleep in the floor like that. You’ll hurt your neck.” Linhardt stated, giving a soft smile. It was meant to be a joke mostly, as he was aware he didn’t have any room to talk.

Caspar couldn’t even argue. He just let out a small laugh, tears running down his face as he dropped to his knees beside the bed, hugging his beloved crest scholar as tightly as possible without hurting him. He never noticed Mercedes quietly clean up the glass and slip out or Ferdinand coming by with food. He was just happy that this was over. Just happy to have his Lin back.


End file.
